Teardrops
by MoohanStrikesBack
Summary: Percy Jackson is being tried for a crime he didnt commit. The punishment? Tartarus. There's only one person who can save him, but she shakes her head and sends him down. Will it change Percy? Will he ever be able to forgive? Maybe. But forget...Never.
1. The Verdict

Chapter 1

"I didn't do it" Percy spat at Athena, as she glared at him from her throne.

" Liar!" Athena snapped back, " My son is DEAD, because of you." She yelled with angst in her voice and fury in her stormy gray eyes. " I vote we send him to Tartarus."

There was a collective gasp across the whole room, Percy hung his head, not in shame but from pure and utter hatred for the Goddess of Wisdom.

"You have all seen what he has done, demigods, you have all seen the blood on his hands, does he not deserve it?" Athena said with an icy tone to her voice.

" No!" Percy's head snapped round, not expecting the voice from which the shout came, it did not come from Thalia or Nico, or even… No, Percy couldn't bare the thought that Annabeth could even think he killed her brother. No, the shout came from Chiron.

" I don't believe for one second that he did it" Chiron stood tall, at the back of the crowd of campers.

" Then that is your vote, Chiron" Athena said calmly " Who else votes he should be allowed to stay?'

Why ever the hell Athena was taking control of this "trial" was beyond Percy but he looked around and saw many faces he knew, his friends, and his enemies.

All with their hands by their sides. All except Thalia and Nico. Percy didn't want to, but toward Annabeth with tears in his eyes.

Her hands were both firmly by her sides, and trembling. She too, had tears flowing from the grey eyes she inherited from her mother.

" Annabeth" Percy whispered, his lip trembling, " Please." Annabeth shook her head slowly from left to right as a single tear hit the ground.


	2. The Guilt

Annabeth's POV

I stared at myself, reflected in shimmering water in the lake behind camp. All I see in my eyes is pain.

I've lost the single most important person in my life. Because he was a murderer.

But I love him, and its like I have a hole in my heart from where he's missing. No, not my heart, soul.

We used to be so in sync it was unreal, almost like we could read each other's minds! I can almost feel the pain he's enduring.

And I hate myself for thinking this, but do I honestly care? He killed my brother! I don't know how the Hades I'm supposed to be feeling anymore.

Hurt? Yes. Anger? Yes. Pain? Of course. And love? I do know whom I love anymore. Everything I love seems to crumble away. First Luke…now….

I don't even want to think about it anymore, its like my brain is shutting down with all the thoughts and feelings I'm having. I don't what to do anymore!

In frustration, I slam my hand into the water, sending a shower of droplets onto my face and chest; I shiver as the water reminds me just what Percy has done

I wander back to my cabin, the others are still in mourning too, but everyone knows Malcolm and I were the closest.

I turn over, facing away from my half brothers and sister and soon the teardrops begin to roll down my cheeks. Do I find relief in sleep? What do you think?

Percy is sitting in a chair, pale and clammy, its dark all around but with only a spotlight on him, someone is pacing around him. I see bruises and cuts all over him, and its obvious he has broken bones.

" What do you want?" Percy still manages to sound fierce even with his injuries  
" I?" The voice said, " I want revenge, my dear Perseus, but that is also what you want. Is it not?"

Percy gives the voice a questioning look" And why would you think that?' he grimaces as the unknown tormenter shock him with what can only be 6000 volts of electricity.

" Because you have lost some much, you friends, family and the girl you love. I can sense in your heart" Well that puzzled me. I never knew of Percy having loved someone at camp. It's the sort of thing he would tell me. Isn't it?

" She's a pretty girl, isn't she Percy?" As the voice steps into the light and I gasp for it's my mother! " But I would know, wouldn't I? I gave birth to her" She sends another shockwave through Percy's body, and he slumps unconscious.

All the while I am screaming and trying to run to him but it as if an invisible force is preventing me from reaching him.

I wake up and find myself still screaming with half the Athena campers staring at me quizzically. Great big tears roll down my face and I shudder from what I have just seen.

I wave my siblings away. I don't want to talk to them, there's only one person I really want to talk to but he's stuck in Tartarus and suddenly I get an overwhelming sense that its all my fault.

I put on a jacket and head on outside, I know I cant talk to him so I rush to Thalia's cabin and start banging on the door before I can remember that Thalia and I aren't friends anymore.

She sticks her head out the door, takes one look at me and asks " What the Hades do you want?"

I burst into tears and force my way inside before she can stop me and I begin to blurt my dream to Thalia.

" Oh Annabeth" she almost laughs, " It was just a dream!"

But with demigods, it's never, just a dream.


	3. The Pain

Percy woke to find Athena looking at him quizzically with riptide in her hand. He groaned, feeling his injuries and gasped to see that his left leg was obviously broken!

He flexed his muscles and cried out in pain. It was so overwhelming that he almost blacked out but managed to hold on and glare up at Athena.

All he said was… " Why?" She laughed,  
" Because my daughter loved you more than she loved, me, her family, her duties, you stinking spawn of Poseidon!"

Percy's mind went blank. Annabeth… loved him? No way that was true, he'd given up his immortality for her and she didn't acknowledge it and she sent him to Tartarus. The deciding vote.

There was no way on earth that Annabeth loved him, but why would Athena lie. The answer came to Percy as quickly as the idea had entered his head: to break him.

What did she want from him? And how the hell was he going to get out of the hell on earth? Then something else sprung to mind. " Wait. You said you wanted revenge for Annabeth but I'm here because Malcolm is dead and apparently I did it?"

Athena laughed, " Stupid half blood, you honestly think I care about Malcolm being dead? Why would, it was me that killed him"

Well that was unexpected. Percy was so angry with Athena he wanted to scream but found he had no voice. Not because Athena had silenced him but because he knew in his heart that he would never get out of here and Annabeth would never know the truth.

Percy honestly didn't know how he felt about her anymore. Did he love her? He did once but that all changed when she shook her head and sent him down. Did he hate her? He couldn't think.

All the confusion, the pain and the problem were all too much for Percy and he passed out again, his head falling forwards, still dripping with blood.


	4. The Former Friend

Thalia's POV (bet ya didn't expect that!)

Life at camp without Percy just wasn't the same. Whilst many campers were still under the impression that Percy was guilty, Thalia, Nico and select few others remained loyal to him.

And Annabeth? Well, Thalia just didn't know what to think about her. One minute she's damming Percy to Tartarus and the next she sat on my bedroom floor crying her eyes out about it.

Although Thalia had laughed at the time, what Annabeth had told her had slowly started to sink in and she now truly believed her past words to be a lie.

Why? Because Annabeth's mom was a bitch, that's all Thalia knew and she would do anything to get her way. But as for Annabeth loving Percy? There was no doubt, in Thalia's mind, that this was a load of crap.

As much as Thalia still hated her, she knew in my heart that Annabeth would send someone she loved to Tartarus but as she thought this, she began to doubt herself.

She knew that Annabeth's fatal flaw was hubris: Deadly pride. But how far did that limit stretch? Would she betray her best friend for her own gain? Or was it just pure loathing of Percy that made her decision?

Just thinking this made her doubt her own friendship with Annabeth, but their friendship was based on something a lot deeper. They were true family.

But and she only though as a hypothesis (Annabeth was rubbing of on her), if Annabeth really did love Percy, then Thalia realized she knew nothing about her friend, former friend.

Thalia wandered down to Zeus's fist, just sit and be calm, it made her feel safe there but on her way she passed the river near to which capture the flag was played and saw something she didn't expect.

Annabeth was sat with her feet the river, holding something small in her hand, which Thalia couldn't see. A letter? No, it was a photograph and something else.

Thalia recognized the photo immediately. It was one of her and Percy on the beach at the edge of camp, laughing. She had tears in her eyes.

Thalia was startled. Was Annabeth crying over a picture of Percy? That wasn't possible, unless… Something hit Thalia hard in the chest. Not a rock, or an arrow, but a realization.

Annabeth genuinely loved Percy. And it made Thalia want to be sick, knowing that Annabeth had just casually thrown 4 years of friendship away.

Percy had given everything up for that girl and she had shrugged him off time and time again. But this was too much, she loved and she sent away.

What sort of friend would do that? Thalia thought of the answer as soon as she asked it; Annabeth. Because Annabeth had to much pride.

Now Percy was gone, that made Annabeth head of camp, now Percy was gone, Annabeth would be free and now Percy was lost to Tartarus because of her selfish choice.

How could Annabeth do that? This was the easiest of all Thalia's rhetorical questions to answer. Because she had Athena as a mother. And neither of them, would stop to get what they wanted.


End file.
